Texas author and journalist Dick J. Reavis has written much on the topic of the Mexican people, including pieces on undocumented immigrants, guerrilla movements and their leaders, Mexican American civil rights activists, and the cultural formation of modern Mexico. The collection is comprised of personal papers of Texas author and journalist Dick J. Reavis, and more specifically those materials relating to Mario Cantú, Güero Medrano and the Partido Proletario Unido de America, and the Campamento 2 de Octubre, a squatter camp outside of Mexico City. These include articles, photographs and reflections composed by the Reavis, as well as various newspaper clippings on each subject.

From 1983 to 1999 the Central America Resource Center (CARC) compiled a collection of news articles on the current events in the U.S. and Central America. A similar project was undertaken for Mexico, the Mexico Newspak, from 1993-1999. The articles documented human rights violations in Central America that immigration attorneys used in political asylum petitions on their clients’ behalf. In 1992, CARC changed its name to the Human Rights Documentation Exchange (HRDE) and expanded its mission to collect documentation for asylum cases worldwide.

Dr. Ramiro R. Casso was a civil rights activist that fought for school desegregation and equal educational opportunities for Mexican American children. As a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Casso also advocated on behalf of Texas farm workers and promoted public health issues along the Texas-Mexico border. Active also in politics, Casso ran for mayor of McAllen, Texas, in 1981, campaigning for increased vigilance on issues of police brutality directed at Mexican Americanss and immigrants. Casso also served on the Texas Board of Health and the Texas Human Rights Commission. Materials in the collection include print documents such as speeches, testimonies and correspondence from each of Casso's endeavors, with a particular focus on health and education issues along the border.

Legal papers, correspondence, minutes, agendas, printed materials, clippings, photographs, and memorabilia document the strike and other efforts of the Upholsterers' International Union (UIU) Local No. 456 to win collective bargaining rights at the Economy Furniture Company plant in Austin, Texas, from 1968-1972. The non-violent efforts of workers to win union recognition and a signed contract ended in 1971 after a two-and-a-half-year strike also known as the "Austin Chicano Huelga." The collection contains legal records from Sam Houston Clinton and Dave R. Richards, attorneys for the Upholsterers' International Union Local No. 456; miscellaneous briefs and papers relating to court proceedings and settlement of strike; strike and boycott materials; union correspondence; and external publications.

Eduardo Idar was a Mexican American lawyer and legal rights activist. The materials document Idar's career as an attorney in Texas with the Attorney General's office, his involvement with organizations such as the American G.I. Forum, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Political Association of Spanish Speaking People, and his activism for Mexican American rights in schools and in the political and legal process. A large part of the collection documents the case of Ruiz v. Estelle, which found widespread abuses of prisoners in the Texas state prison system and placed it in federal receivership.

Both Erasmo and Sally Andrade were activists who advocated for the fulfillment of the rights of Mexican Americans to education, social services, economic justice and political participation. With these purposes in mind, Erasmo founded three organizations during the 1960s - Bishop's Committee for the Spanish Speaking, the Political Association of Spanish-Speaking Organizations (PASSO), and the Federation for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (FAMA). Erasmo's portion of the collection includes documents and correspondence from each of these initiatives and materials related to various political campaigns and partnerships with other civil rights organizations. Sally's papers focus on the Governor's Task Force on Inhalant Abuse and also include collected writings on the changing roles of women in Latino families.

Eustasio Cepeda was a community activist in the Austin, Texas area. Active in Mexican American mutual aid societies and in organizations of Mexican nationals in Texas, Cepeda helped organize celebrations of Mexican holidays in Austin and was instrumental in having a Mexican consul assigned to Austin. The collection contains documents from various organizations Cepeda aided in organizing, as well as correspondence relating to Cepeda's activism against discrimination, aid to Mexican nationals and Mexican consular activities and presence in Texas. The collection also includes news clippings, photographs, programs, patriotic pamphlets, poems, songs and speech notes.

From 1940 to 1988, the Field Foundation provided support to organizations promoting human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, child welfare and social change, including the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Children's Defense Fund. This collection includes correspondence, reports, legal documents, printed material, clippings, and photographs documenting the many movements and groups the foundation supported as well as the foundation's role as an active participant in social change.